New York City aims to reduce the amount of waste disposed of by 90 percent by 2030 and send zero waste to landfills by that point, according to its new plan for the city.1
This project aims to determine how much waste New York City (NYC) residents recycle and whether recycling varies among different districts in NYC. If a difference does exist, we hope to uncover possible explanations for it. These differences may be explained by socioeconomic factors such as income and educational attainment. It’s possible that the amount of recycling in each district might also be affected by the sheer number of public recycling bins in each district or the average distance to the nearest recycling bin in each district.
Motivation
Considering that recycling levels differ among different districts in New York City, it would be very interesting to learn the reasons/explanations behind these differences. Understanding why recycling is successful in some areas and unsuccessful in others may inspire new initiatives to promote recycling in New York City. In addition to being great for the environment, it would also benefit NYC’s residents (recycling reduces pollution, conserves energy, reduces the need for new raw materials, and keeps trash out of landfills).
Possibly the gained knowledge could be applied to other cities in the US and/or around the world. This project would mostly affect UN SDGs 11 and 12 in a positive way.
Below is a video that summarizes our project idea: